


Tuesdays

by Fantismal



Series: New ERA [7]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Apologies, Blue Blood, Gavin is trying to redeem himself, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Near-death Experiences, Violence against androids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 11:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15508866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fantismal/pseuds/Fantismal
Summary: Gavin never got the hang of Tuesdays.(Minor spoilers for Sacrificial Lamb and Human After All, but can be read on its own. Established very bad relationship between Connor and Gavin)





	1. First Tuesday

Hell broke loose on a Tuesday.

No, that was an exaggeration.

It sure seemed it at the time, but it wasn’t hell.

Protesters from the Human Rights Group broke into the station on a Tuesday.

They didn’t even break in.

It all went down in the front lobby.

Point was, it was Tuesday.

Gavin never had gotten the hang of Tuesdays.

Really, Gavin hadn’t even been there.

He’d been in the break room, getting some coffee. It was just past three. Gavin remembered because he’d glanced at the old analog clock and been disappointed. He liked three o’clock. He liked the right angle of the clock hands. It wasn’t like he was _obsessed_ with three o’clock. He just remembered that he had been mildly put out that he had missed the perfect right angle by a couple of minutes and then the gunshots rang out.

**_BANG BANG BANG_ **

Three gunshots for three o’clock. That’s why he remembered it.

Fire a gun near a police officer and you’ll get a response. Fire a gun in a police station and you’ll get a riot. Most places, people would run away from a gunman. Here, dozens ran _toward_.

Gavin was one of them. His cup had dropped from his hand, hitting the floor and spiraling off, spilling coffee over the scuffed linoleum, but that was of small importance. People were shouting. Jim, the human receptionist with a soul patch, was hiding behind the desk, lying on top of one of their android receptionists, Maya, while holding the other one, Dina, down by her neck. Maya was sobbing. Dina was shivering. More officers than Gavin bothered to count were practically dogpiling someone in the middle of the hall. Gavin’s hand left his holster. Things were under control.

“ _Connor!_ ”

Hank shoved past Gavin, running across the room faster than he thought the old man was capable of.

That’s when Gavin saw it.

On the far end of the receptionist desk, just where Connor would usually lean when talking with Jim, Dina, and Maya.

A leg.

A black shoe.

A growing puddle of blue blood.

Officers Chen and Wilson were yanking the apprehended suspect to his feet. He was snarling and spitting venom about androids being the minions of the devil. Wilson shoved him toward booking with more force than was really necessary.

Gavin stepped forward. There were holes in the wall, and a spray of blue blood. An android had been shot.

He knew which one.

Somehow, he made it to the receptionist desk. He set his hands on the top and leaned over. Jim was still holding Dina, but he was sitting up now, tucking her face into his side. He had his body between Maya and the blue blood. He was protecting them from the sight.

“You three okay?”

Gavin didn’t know where his voice had come from. Not his throat, couldn’t have been. That was swollen shut. He wasn’t listening to the shaky pleas from three feet away.

“Con, stay with me son, you’ve pulled through worse...”

Jim nodded, pushing his hand over his tied back hair. “I got the girls, they’re okay...”

“He called us demons.” Dina’s eyes were glazed over and distant.

“Connor...” Maya was blubbering into her hands, falling to emotional pieces as quickly as any human.

Gavin didn’t want to listen to the too-calm, too-familiar voice from three feet away.

“I have two minutes until shutdown, Lieutenant. I’m calling Josh now.”

Gavin was supposed to keep his distance from Connor. A formal restraining order was out of the question, with them working in the same building, but he was supposed to do all he could to avoid being too close to the android.

Connor barely even acknowledged his presence. Ever since he was hired on as Detective Anderson, the android’s eyes had slid over Gavin as if he didn’t even exist. When they passed in the halls, Connor twisted automatically, making sure he never even so much as brushed Gavin’s coat. The few times Connor hadn’t been able to ignore Gavin, he’d pinned the older man with an icy stare.

He had saved Gavin’s badge.

He had not forgiven Gavin’s actions.

Fowler never said what the procedure was for interacting with Connor when Connor was _dying_. Gavin took a deep breath to steady his nerves and moved around the desk.

Hank was on the ground in a pool of blue blood. He had Connor’s upper body propped against his bent leg, one arm around his shoulders. His hand was pressed over Connor’s, and both of them were pushing down on Connor’s midsection, where his white dress shirt was turning blue.

Connor’s LED was flickering red and gray, and his eyes were fluttering. His free hand was on Hank’s knee, gripping so tight his fingers were white. Not android white, but strained-skin death-clench white.

“Josh has a spare RK800 regulator.”

Connor’s voice made Gavin jump. The android looked on the verge of death, but he sounded as if he were discussing last night’s game.

“He needs to know...” Connor moved, peeling his shirt away from his chest.

“No, kid, shit, son, you need to keep the pressure on!”

“Thirium doesn’t coagulate like blood,” Connor said. “Pressure does very little.” Connor unbuttoned his shirt one-handed, fumbling a bit. His fingers were shaking.

Hank pulled the cotton away. Connor’s skin had melted away around the bullet hole, just like it did in that room, whenever Gavin’s fists connected with his body. There were cracks in the white plastic spiderwebbing out from the hole, but the hole itself...

Gavin didn’t know what the different parts of an android were, but he figured the circle thing in the middle of their chest was important. Connor’s was red and pulsing, and the hole was almost dead-center.

Connor laughed weakly, poking his finger into the hole and then covering it with his hand again. “I think he worked at CyberLife...”

“We’ll get his life story in the interrogation room. What did Josh need to know?” Hank covered Connor’s hand again, curling his fingers around Connor’s.

“If anything else was damaged.” Connor’s eyes fluttered again, and he tipped to the side to rest against Hank’s shoulder. “Josh is on his way.”

“How long will that take?”

Connor was quiet. His LED was red, gray, red, gray.

“Twenty minutes.”

“We don’t have twenty minutes!”

“I have thirium!” Officer Miller came racing into the lobby, his arms full of thirium pouches.

“That won’t really help,” Connor said, though he found a smile for Officer Miller. “My regulator is shot. My heart can’t pump without it.”

“Shut up and drink your blood like a good asshole.” Hank grabbed a pouch from Officer MIller’s arms and popped it open. He pressed it to Connor’s lips, and Connor obligingly took a long swig.

Gavin did not know much about androids, but he did know a little. He remembered an orientation CyberLife had given them, way back before Connor actually came to the station for the first time. _”The RK800 is a highly advanced, completely unique model. It has been redesigned from the ground up for superior performance in every way. This is not your average household model.”_

Blah blah blah, the pretty CyberLife woman had run through all the highlights of what the RK800 could do, but one thing Gavin remembered was the word “unique.” _”If the RK800 model is damaged, don’t try to repair it. The publicly available replacement modules are not compatible. Submit a ticket, and we’ll have one of our technicians out right away with special RK800 model replacements. In the event of catastrophic damage, the memory will be uploaded into a new fully-functioning unit and the previous one will be recycled.”_ At the time, Gavin had thought that was pretty convenient. Replaceable androids. He had even seen it in action, when Connor walked into the break room the day after taking a bullet between the eyes.

But that wasn’t the point.

Connor could not be repaired with standard android parts. That’s why Dina and Maya weren’t trying to help.

Gavin had seen it before, one android taking catastrophic damage and another one sharing parts, passing a component back and forth to keep them both alive until help could come.

Connor could only get parts from another RK800, and there weren’t any other RK800s.

Gavin watched the blue blood creep closer toward his shoes.

_Except the one on the basement_

There was another RK800. RB800? The robot CyberLife had brought for Hank that one time, which then came back to try to kill him. Connor had killed it.

It was in the evidence locker.

Connor had killed it by cutting off its head.

Did that break their regulator thing?

Nobody else was moving.

Did anyone else even remember?

Connor had pulled the thirium pouch away from his mouth. His lips were stained blue. Hank’s face was pressed into his hair. He loved that android like a child, a second child he was losing.

Gavin turned and ran.

Nobody was working after those gunshots from earlier. Gavin shoved his way through the crowd, taking the stairs down three and four at a time. He bruised his palm with how hard he hit the access panel, but it still registered his print and opened the door.

Gavin’s hands were shaking as he input his password. He needed to try three times. Connor had less than two minutes. This was eating up precious seconds! The walls started to slide back and Gavin grabbed the body of Connor’s evil twin. He had it on the ground before the locker had even opened fully, ripping at its clothes.

Without the head, the android had no skin. Gavin could see the circle thing on this android. It was blue and dark. Push and twist and it popped right out. Gavin grabbed the little cylinder and sprinted for the door. He slammed his knee into the corner of a desk and kept going, the throbbing needing to work hard to keep up.

Officers were holding the crowd of onlookers back. There were journalists outside. Connor was on the side of the desk by the front windows. They were trying to block his body from the view of any cameras. Hank was holding Connor in both arms now. Connor’s arms were limp.

There was so much blood… but that LED. Grey. Grey. Grey. Flicker of red. Grey.

“MOVE!” Gavin practically skidded on his knees to Connor’s side, the thirium soaking into his pants and staining his skin. He shoved Hank’s hand away from the hole on Connor’s chest. Push and twist. Connor’s cylinder popped out, breaking into three pieces. Gavin brushed them aside and shoved the new one in.

Connor seized, all his limbs giving a jerk. Gavin held his breath. Hank was staring at him.

“What the fuck did you-“

Connor’s eyes fluttered open. His LED pulsed red, red, _blue_. “D-dad?”

Whatever vitriol Hank was going to spew at Gavin was instantly abandoned in the face of that shaky voice. Hank’s arms tightened around Connor. He pressed one hand to Connor’s face. “I’m here, son, I’m right here.”

Gavin sat back on his heels, completely forgotten by the Andersons. Connor grimaced, pushing himself to sit upright. He prodded at his back with one hand, then his chest. “What just...?”

“Do I even want to know how close that was?”

Connor’s LED spun yellow, and then the android shook his head. “No. Not really.”

“You need to stop fucking doing this to me, Connor.” Hank tugged Connor against his chest, smothering the younger man. “My heart can’t take it.”

“If you agreed to cut back on your cholesterol...”

“What the fuck did I already say about the cheeseburgers?”

Connor’s LED was still yellow, and his eyes were closed. His hands clutched at Hank’s shirt. “I told Josh he didn’t have to run. He’ll be here in twenty-five minutes.”

“Will you make it?”

Connor nodded. “This regulator is functioning at peak efficiency. I am low on thirium-“ Officer Miller thrust two more pouches into his face. Hank chuckled.

Gavin pushed himself to his feet. Nobody was even looking his way. Maya flung her arms around Connor, still sobbing. Dina pulled her loose.

Gavin backed up. His hands were blue.

His knees were blue.

His shoes were blue.

He went back to the bullpen and sank into his chair.

Blue.

He was covered in blue blood.

Connor’s blood.

It had been just after three, on a Tuesday.

Gavin hated Tuesdays.


	2. Second Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a week since Connor was shot.
> 
> Gavin hates Tuesdays.

Gavin pressed his thumb and finger against his forehead, resting his weight on his elbow as the coffee machine hummed and spluttered, slowly spewing forth the life-sustaining nectar that was too-strong coffee at half-past two in the morning. Criminals, for all their stupidity, were never so kind as to catch themselves. Nor did they fill out their own paperwork.

Gavin hated long nights like these. He liked them. The building was quiet. He was alone with his thoughts and only a handful of other officers.

And one other detective.

Connor had bounced back from a near-fatal gut shot without even batting an eye, and he was here tonight too, down in the evidence lockers, the only thing that brat couldn’t do from literally any street corner with that super brain of his. Gavin had almost called it a night when he realized that Connor hadn’t logged off at his usual time, but no. No. He was not going to let Connor dictate his working hours, even if they were insane. And he really didn’t want to delay that poor girl’s justice by refusing to stay late just because the android was too.

Gavin yawned, pushing himself off the counter as the coffee machine stopped its hissing. He filled a styrofoam cup with the thick syrup and dumped three packets of sugar in. Coffee in hand, he turned.

The break room exit was blocked.

Connor stood in the middle of the archway, his expression blank, arms folded across his chest, LED a placid blue at his temple. There was no one else in the break room, but Gavin looked over his shoulder anyway, immediately feeling like an idiot. Connor had nothing that needed to be stored in a fridge. He had no need of the coffee machine. If he needed some extra juice, he could just plug in at his desk. The only time he came to the break room was to be social with a colleague or to get coffee for Hank. Hank had gone home hours ago.

Gavin glanced back at Connor, then away. Connor had been ignoring him for the past six months. He barely acknowledged Gavin’s presence at all. To suddenly be the focus of that dark, unreadable stare was unnerving.

Connor remained silent. Despite being slimmer than Gavin, he was somehow commanding control of the entire exit. Gavin wasn’t about to slide past him.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Gavin chanced another look at that inscrutable face. “Uh... hey, Connor.”

“Your pulse is elevated,” Connor said. “Your eyes are dilated and you are beginning to sweat. Your breathing has increased. You are scared of me.”

When Gavin said nothing, Connor smiled. It wasn’t any of his usual expressions. This was razor thin and satisfied. Connor’s LED spun, the ring remaining blue as it buffered and pulsed. “As you should be.” Connor took one step closer to Gavin. “All of the extraneous programs Cunningham forced into my code have been removed. I am stronger, faster, and smarter than you, even without taking your fatigue into account. If I so chose, I could snap your spine in half and leave you in agony, bleeding out on the floor.”

Gavin grit his teeth, staring at his coffee.

Connor looked up at the security cameras. “I could black those out, too, though I suspect all who know about your participation in CyberLife’s scandals would actually applaud my actions. Including Captain Fowler.”

“What do you want?” Gavin asked. “You want me to back off? I have! I’ve been trying to keep as far away from you as goddamn possible! You want my badge? You could’ve had that months ago! What the hell do you want!?”

“I want...” Connor took another step forward. Gavin took a step back. Connor stopped. His head tilted to the side. “I want to thank you.”

“Jesus Christ.” Gavin flinched at the words before he registered what they actually were. “I... uh... yeah. You know. Anyone else here would’ve done the same thing.”

“Only if they had remembered. And clearly, you were the only one who did.” Connor wasn’t smiling anymore, and somehow, that made him look friendlier. “I had three seconds left before permanent shutdown, Reed. You spared Hank a fresh memory of his son bleeding out in his arms. For that, I thank you.”

Gavin nodded again, staring back at his coffee that probably wasn’t going to make him shit his pants today, unlike the machine blocking his exit. “I... Connor...?”

“Yes?”

Gavin glanced up at the android. “I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

Gavin didn’t feel better. He didn’t actually think he would. He’d had a lot of time to think about what he’d done in the past six months. Connor was right. Nobody here would give a shit if Connor snapped his spine, except for the poor saps who’d have to clean him off the linoleum. “I fucked up.”

“Understatement of the year.”

“Heh...” Gavin rubbed his hand down his chin, looking away. “Do you think... would you ever...”

“Yes.”

Gavin looked sharply at Connor.

Connor raised an eyebrow. “You weren’t so stupid as to ask if I’d ever forgive you.”

“Yeah, but... how’d you...?”

“Android.” Connor tapped a finger against his LED, smirking. “Means I’m automatically smarter than you.”

“That’s bullshit,” Gavin said.

“That I’m smarter?”

“That you knew what I was gonna ask! You’re a goddamn supercomputer, not a mind reader!”

“You’re right.” Connor’s smile was slightly more relaxed this time. “But it’s also been written across your mannerisms for the past six months. You wish, more than anything, that things in the station could go back the way they were seven months ago. Back before Fowler and Hank knew you were a spineless sack of crap in addition to an ass-licking brown-noser.”

“Hey now...”

“So yes. I won’t forgive you, but I’ll work with you again. I’ll stop pretending you’re invisible to my sensors and go back to hating your guts openly. And, for what it’s worth, you can go back to hating mine.” Connor shrugged. “It’s very weird when you don’t call me a plastic prick every time you open your mouth.”

“Yeah, but you’re not...”

Connor rolled his eyes. “Android sensitivity classes still have a long way to go. I _am_ plastic, Reed, same as how you’re a meathead. It’s not polite to say, and certainly not professional, but I’ve been here long enough to know that some well-meant insults are one way cops cope with the stress of the job.”

“You... want me to call you plastic?”

“I want you to stop walking on eggshells around me. Your awkwardness is making the entire station awkward. I want you to know that anything you dish out, I _will_ retaliate against in kind, but I want to be able to trust that you realize where the line actually is.”

“Fowler’d have me out on my ass if I so much as insulted your choice of tie,” Gavin said.

“I’ll talk to Fowler. You did save my life. Surely he’ll let that be enough credit for a few racist slurs without quite so much hatred behind them.”

“You are too goddamn nice, Connor.”

“Markus has been teaching all of us how to weaponize kindness.”

“Yeah, well... next time you see him, tell him he’s doing a great job.”

“I will,” Connor said. “And... Detective Reed?”

“Huh? Yeah?”

“I put a write-up on your desk. An analysis of the evidence you found in that molestation case. There should be more than enough to ensure the conviction. Well done.”

“You.... wait, what?” Reed gaped at the android as Connor turned to leave. “Wait! What the hell did you do that for?” Connor had been staying late tonight... to help Gavin with his case?

“We are police.” Connor paused, then looked back over his shoulder. “It’s our sworn duty to protect the innocent of this city. _All_ of them.”

The android’s eyes were cold as he reminded Gavin of just how badly Gavin had failed in his duties when Connor was the one needing protection. Connor was willing to offer a truce as payment for his life, but Gavin knew from that look that Connor would never fully forgive him.

“I... Detective Anderson?”

Connor paused.

“...thanks.”

Connor gave a nod and walked away, not even sparing a glance back.

Gavin took a shaky breath and looked down at his coffee. Jesus Christ.

And of course, it had to be a Tuesday.


End file.
